Old Fashioned Southern Caramel Cake. I love this cake. It’s a holiday favorite in many southern and soul food households. It’s a fluffy moist yellow cake covered in a rich caramel frosting. What’s not to love? I’ll tell you— MAKING IT! 😐
I love this cake, but honestly it is a pain in the butt to make. The actual cake part is easy, because I use a cake mix and hype it up with a few ingredients. The frosting, on the other hand is quite challenging, and that’s why I only make this one time a year. Seriously, if you plan on making this by hand (no hand mixer or stand mixer), bless your little heart. You will be in the kitchen ALL day, making the frosting. I seriously recommend using a mixer of some sort.
The outcome of this cake is simply amazing…so the hard work does pay off. If you’re planning on making this for the upcoming holidays, I suggest practicing now. So here is the recipe, and video.
How to Make Southern Caramel Cake
If you liked this Southern Caramel Cake, try some of my other cake recipes!
Semi-Homemade Banana Pudding Cake
Moist Pumpkin Chocolate Texas Sheet Cake
Southern Caramel Cake
Ingredients
Yellow Cake Batter
- 15.25 oz package of Yellow Cake Mix
- 3 medium eggs
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp rum extract
Caramel Frosting
- 1 1/2 sticks salted butter
- 1 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
Instructions
- Sift the cake mix, and place it into a large bowl.
- In a small bowl, beat the eggs by hand for 2 MINUTES.
- Add the beaten eggs along with the cake mix, then add in the vegetable oil, buttermilk, vanilla extract and rum extract.
- Mix until the batter is smooth, but DO NOT OVER MIX.
- Grease and flour two 9 inch cake pans.
- Pour the cake batter into each pan, about 3/4 full.
- Bake each cake for 20-25 minutes, or until done.
- Carefully remove the cake out of the pan, and let them cool on a cooling rack.
Frosting
- Place 1/2 cup salted butter into a large pan along with 1 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1 cup granulated sugar, 1 tsp salt, and 1/2 cup whipping cream. Melt down the mixture over medium heat, and stir.
- Meanwhile, In a separate pan, melt down 1/2 cup granulated sugar over medium heat. Once the sugar is melted and browned, add it to the other pan of cream/sugar mixture.
- Let the mixture cook for about 30 seconds, then remove from the heat, and add 2 tsp of vanilla. Stir.
- Carefully pour the hot frosting into a stand mixer bowl, OR a heat resistant mixing bowl.
- Whisk on low speed until the mixture cools down a bit (about 10 minutes)
- Add in the 4 tbsp of butter, and 1/4 cup of heavy cream.
- Change the attachments from your mixer from whisk to mixer, and set it on medium speed.
- Mix until the butter and cream is well mixed in, then carefully start adding in the confectioner’s sugar, but 1 tbsp at a time (ALSO MAKE SURE THAT THE SUGAR IS WELL SIFTED BEFOREHAND!)
- Mix the frosting for about 5 minutes, then frost the cakes.
- After frosting the cake, let it sit for at least 45 minutes before serving.
Video
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Looks awesome, thanks for the tips for making the box mix taste more homemade. Is it medium eggs or large? Video says medium, but written instructions list large. Thanks!
Thank you for catching that hunny! It’s medium eggs 🙂
Great, thanks!
Hi Rosie,
Please help! I just made this caramel cake, I wanted to try something new for Thanksgiving but wanted to try it out first. However mine was a little off from yours. I followed the directions and watched the video while preparing it. I noticed that yours was a bit darker then mine and appeared to be more smooth with a bit more gloss. Mine was lighter and a little more dull and kind of gritty. Also, the top cake layer kept sliding around while trying to frost it. Any tips or suggestions I would greatly appreciate it so that I can make this cake perfectly for Thanksgiving! 🙂
Hi hunny! It sounds like you might not have cooked the caramel frosting enough. It’s possible that you didn’t mix it long enough as well. This frosting does take forever, and it take practice. Give it another try sweetie! XOXO
Can I only used a hand mixer for the cake
That is what was used. Use whatever you have hun 🙂
Is that 1 cup of confectioners sugar or 1 cup and a half im not sure thanks
I don’t understand the question..??
How much confectioners sugar do I need to used for the frosting
Hello, I don’t have any rum extract, what can I us in the cake mixture other than the Rum Extract flavor?
Sorry Viola. I don’t have any substitutions for the rum extract.
Hi Rosie, looks great! Do you have a recipe for yellow cake with chocolate frosting?
Not uploaded, but I have one coming soon!! 🙂
My caramel icing was too salty! What went wrong? Followed your recipe to a T. Was it the salty butter or the 1tsp of salt? The cake was good but the icing destroyed my cake. Had to trash it. Please advise.
P.S. love your site:-)
I’m not sure why your frosting came out “salty”. It shouldn’t had been salty at all. That is a first. Did you add all of the sugars needed?
Just wanted to follow up from earlier this month when I made this recipe. This was the best cake I’ve ever made, my family and I could not stop eating it. My husband has requested it for his birthday tomorrow, so Im about to make it again. I did make some toffee pecans and add to the top of the cake, that sweet crunch took it over the top!
I just wanted to take the time to tell you Thank You. I have been looking for a caramel frosting recipe forever now. The ones I tried before were always an epic fail. Just finished up this recipe and it took me back to my grandmother’s kitchen Thank You. Keep doing what you do and God will do the rest be blessed is my prayer. Tavias Ford Memphis Tn.
I’n glad that you liked the recipe!! Thanks for giving it a try!
For the icing, should I add 1/2 of confectioners sugar or 1 cup and a 1/2 cup. My icing came out lighter than yours and I was wondering if I added too much confectioners sugar. I put 1 whole cup plus a half cup. I love your website and YouTube! I can’t to try more recipes! 🙂
I would follow the recipe for best results. If your icing came out lighter, you probably didn’t cook it as long as I did. Please check out my homemade caramel cake. I think that the frosting is easier than this one. 🙂
Also, I was wondering how long should the Carmel mixture be cooked.
can an electric mixer be used for mixing the frosting ?
You sure can 😀
My cake turned our perfect! The Carmel was a little gritty. I will cook it a little longer next time. Also, I used dark brown sugar. Do I still need to carmelize the granulated sugar to add to the mixture? My Carmel was extremely sweet. Thank you for the recipe. I subscribed.
Yes, cook it a little long next time.
Hey Rosie! OK….so tonight I attempted to make this scrumptious frosting, for a 2nd time and it was an epic fail! 🙁 It looked pretty though lol. BUT I WILL NOT STOP TRYING UNTIL I GET IT RIGHT! Here is what happened, I used dark brown sugar cause that’s what I had. Does light or brown make a difference in the taste? It didn’t really taste like caramel at all. Tasted more like butterscotch! Or maple…or something other than caramel! LBVS! Also, when cooking the sugar I think it may have cooked too long or either the fire was too high cause I think it kinda started to burn. That would change the taste a bit right?
I didn’t have medium eggs so I used large. Will that change the taste or texture of the cake?
Hi Rocquin!! I’m actually going to redo this on after the holidays with better instructions, and a revised recipe. Stay tuned.
Rosie!!!! I made this cake tonight. I haven’t tasted it yet but I’m just so excited my carmel turned out so perfect & taste gooooood. Thank you so much for sharing your recipe.
Thanks for trying hun!